Updating the Tennessee injury report

Tennessee picked up a huge win over the weekend, finally coming out on top of Will Muschamp’s South Carolina Gamecocks. The Volunteers did it without freshman quarterback Brian Maurer, who had taken over the starting gig after the open date. Maurer suffered back to back concussions in consecutive weeks, which forced him to sit out.

Tennessee played Jarrett Guarantano and JT Shrout in his place. Shrout started the game, then gave way to Guarantano, who had a really nice game. Shrout ended up coming back into the game in relief after Jarrett injured his non-throwing hand after taking a shot in the pocket.

So who will Jeremy Pruitt have available to play against UAB? According to him, Guarantano will be ready to play.

“I’m sure he’ll be limited for a day or two here,” Pruitt said on Monday. “He’s got to take mental reps and he’ll do that, so he’s in here watching film. He’ll be ready to go, unless something happens that I don’t know about.”

Maurer’s situation is a little more complex.

“Brian, he’s going to go out there and start practicing this week,” Pruitt said. “So we’ll see where he’s at, at the end of the week. But he’s ready to go.”

By ‘ready to go,’ we can probably assume that means ready to practice.

Tennessee gets the 6-1 UAB Blazers on Saturday night in Neyland Stadium. They’ll be looking to build on the offensive success that they found against South Carolina, which featured an explosive, downfield passing attack.

Who is pulling the trigger under center remains to be seen, but Tennessee fans saw last week that the game plan certainly won’t change for the quarterback.

Elsewhere, Pruitt told reporters that pass rusher Darrell Taylor and tackle Darnell Wright would be day to day. Wright has an ankle injury while Taylor has a knee contusion. With both of those guys playing a big role for this team, it will be interesting to see if the staff keeps them out of Saturday’s game, or at least limits their action.